Teaching What We Preach: Designing Courses in (Un)Occupied Territories

Linda DriskillProfessor, Rice University

Houston, Texas, USA

Friday, March 18, 2011

Genre Studies Preaches . . .Rice

University

Genres Constitute OrganizationsGenre System(s) = University

Fund-raising Brochures

Student Clubs’ Posters

Parking Permits

Parking TicketsApplication

Admission

Orientation

Papers Lab Reports Exams

COURSES

Academic Curricula

Research Proposals

Awards Data

Publications

Library Records

Graduation Requirements

Diplomas

Dissertations

Thesis Defense

Grades

Transcripts

Genres Constitute OrganizationsGenre System(s) = University

Physics, Biology Chemistry, Math Geology

Sciences

Social SciencesPolitical Science

Economics

Sociology

EngineeringMechanical Engineering

Civil Engineering Bioengineering

COURSES

Professional Schools

Law

Medicine

Music

Architecture

HumanitiesRhetoric

Classics

Philosophy

Linguistics

Disciplinary Boundaries Change Over Time

• Early universities - few subjects

• German universities - specialization

• 20th cent. universities - hybrid disciplines

– bioengineering, feminist studies, mathematical economics

• Must rhetoric always be a handmaiden?

Genres Constitute OrganizationsGenre System(s) = University

Physics, Biology Chemistry, Math Geology

Sciences

Social SciencesPolitical Science

Economics

Sociology

EngineeringMechanical Engineering

Civil Engineering Bioengineering

Professional Schools

Law

Medicine

Music

Architecture

HumanitiesRhetoric

Classics

Philosophy

Linguistics

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RHETORIC

Our Courses Usually Occupy

Discipline-Limited Territory• Theories

• Processes / methods

• Critical studies of _______

• Specific genres (across contexts)

• Research techniques

Exception: Rhetorical Genre Studies

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Partial Exception

• Professional courses

– Nursing communication

– Science communication

– Engineering communication

– Social work communication

• Other discipline “owns” the territory but doesn’t teach communication

Serious Intellectual Questions• Bazerman calls for “a robust, empirically-

grounded theoretically coherent account of how material experience winds up represented in texts and how this is related to continuing material practices based on those representations”

• Goal: “recognize both the force of the social constructionist arguments and appropriately understand and respect the empirical drive of the scientific project”

March 12, 2011, Post to WPA List

Challenge Boundaries Joyfully

• No resolution today

• Get “into the kitchen”

• Look at examples

• Question results

• Set up ideas for future

Designing Courses for (Un)occupied Territories

• If genres constitute organizations, discourse communities, and disciplines

• Rhetoric departments should occupy a larger intellectual territory

• TODAY: How rhetoric courses provide a lens on topics otherwise claimed (but not occupied) by other fields

Assumptions of New Occupier

• Rhetorician is capable and responsible for understanding

– Assumptions

– Theories

– Definitions

– Arguments of other fields

• Rhetorician credible in those territories without disciplinary membership

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Four Newly Occupied Territories

• Museums and Material Culture: Objects Caged and Free-range

• Survivor Stories and Disaster Policies

• How I Learned to Love (and Hate) the Bomb: The Rhetoric of Atomic Energy in Political Discourse and Popular Culture

• Designing Texts / Picturing Arguments

Courses / Outposts

Museums and Material Culture

Objects CAGED and FREE-RANGE

Museums and Material Culture:

Objects Caged and Free-range• Other universities place topic in various

departments: museum studies, anthropology, art history, etc.

• Not claimed at Rice

• Premise: genre systems that connect objects and museums provide a legitimate lens - similar to mathematics

Similar Objects, Different Genres

CAGED: The espresso maker (1978) designed by Richard Sapper for Alessi Fratelli and displayed in the Museum of Modern Art.

FREE-RANGE:

The Sapper-designed teakettle on my friend’s stove.

Genres Move Objects Between Cycles

Free-Range

MagazinesArticles Blogs Ads

TweetsDiariesLetters

AdsWeb Blogs

Labels Exhibition

MagazinesScholarly Pubs

CagedTransferGenres

Course Content• Examines exhibitions and collections as

visual and material arguments managed by rhetorical genre sets

• Uncovers the genre sets of private and managed ownership

• Analyzes politics of display

• Considers who writes about these and how in various disciplines

• Analyzes political and ethical issues

Course Assignments & Projects• Personal essay about a free-range object

• Team essay about caged object on campus

• 9 field trips to museums and their libraries (notes)

• Researched object essay about managed object

• Fantasy exhibition portfolio including object essay, exhibit label, web copy, blog entry, backgrounder research log for museum staff, etc.

• Presentation on a research technique

How I Learned to Love (and Hate) the BombThe Rhetoric of Atomic Energy in

Political Discourse and Popular Culture

New Technology Interpreted

• Political Discourse

– Press conferences, press releases

– Speeches

– Committee Reports

– Proposals

– Reports

– Telegrams

• Popular Culture

– Music

– Films

– Commercials

– News reels

– Cartoons

– Short stories

– Novels

– Poems

Three Periods

• 1945-59 Cold War Begins

– Press releases, scientists’ movement, Acheson-Lilienthal Proposal, Baruch to UN

– Music, First Yank into Tokyo, Fat Man and Little Boy, Atomic Café

• 1960-79 Protest, anti-nuclear, ethics

• 1980s Reagan’s proposals, SDI

Unoccupied Territory

• Complements “straight” Cold War or WWII history or political science

• Expands a “film studies” type course

• Emphasizes the genres that organize people’s actions and thinking

• Shows power of metaphor and genre conventions, plot, in interpreting genres

Why Take This Course?• Learn to recognize how new technologies are

being sold to you

• Maximize group value: Learn from people in other majors

• Pursue valuable individual projects

• Recognize new connections between literary and non-literary discourse

• Do good scholarship in an interesting area

Builds on Majors’ Knowledge

• First round reports from disciplinary groups

– How the bombs worked

– Atomic music

– Complexity of researching Truman’s decision

– Unknown dangers of radiation

Sample Projects Atomic Verse: Nuclear Destruction in Postwar American poetry

Why the Persuasive Strategy of the Union of Concerned Scientists Failed

The Ideology of Strategic Defense: Reagan, SDI, and American Culture

A Comparative Analysis of Non-Proliferation Treaties’ Rhetoric

Hero Images and the Atomic Bomb: Reagan’s SDI Speech and Dr. Strangelove

The Ethical Possibilities for Citizen Identity Given Government Propaganda

The Post-Apocalyptic Nuclear Tradition in Video Games

The Narrative Function of Atomic Energy in Goldfinger

The Rhetoric of Civil Defense Announcements ’45 to ‘85

Absent and Undefended Minorities

More Papers

Dr. Atomic and Messengers in Apocalyptic Narratives

The Absence of Minorities and Marginalization of Women in Atomic Bomb Films

Adjusting Bomb News to Audience Sensitivities in The Stars and Stripes

Atomic Songs and the Religious Right

The Atomic Protest Music Tradition and Punk Rock Lyrics

Survivors’ Stories and Disaster Policies

Focused Research Group

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Welcome to ENGL 387.2

Survivors’ Stories

and Disaster Policies

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2010 “Natural” Disasters• Haiti earthquake

• Chile earthquake

• Turkey earthquake

• China snowstorm

• Washington, D.C. snow

• Pakistan floods

• Queensland Floods

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Deliberately Caused “Disasters”

“They kept tellingus that we are nothuman beings and weare here to serve them”Testimony from unnamed boy

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URGENCY: 2007 Agreements Call for Disaster Plans• UN-sponsored Hyogo Protocol• ProVention Consortium Agreement• Recognized need in US

– In 2005 New Orleans had no plan for evacuating citizens who had no private transportation, who were handicapped, or were special needs cases

• Plans written in “gender-free” neutrality

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So, is this a course for you?In an era of disasters and grand challenges,

• What relationship exists between humanities and social sciences and engineering?

• What use are

– close reading,

– literary and language theories,

– analysis of structure and style?

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PLENTY!

• Survivors’ stories can be analyzed to guide policy-making

• Gendered perspectives increase effectiveness

– Add insights from diverse experience

– Add capabilities of more people

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E387.2 Is “New Traditional”

• Organized as course AND on-going research project

• Enough structure for comfort, enough freedom for creativity

– Three papers

– Three writing hours

(for reflection)

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Course Goals• Test models for analyzing survivors’ stories

• Identify motivating elements that govern survivors’ eventual choices

• Evaluate best practices in response

• Understand the policy context

• Recommend how gendered perspectives can be applied to new disaster policies

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Overall Structure• Begin with story analysis: Katrina, 9/11

• Analyze best practices and existing approaches, US & international cases

• Read literature on mitigation policies and “mainstreaming” gender perspectives

• Formulate our conclusions and recommendations

DESIGNING Arguments /Picturing / TEXTS

An introduction to Visual Argument

Three-part Course

• Design Concepts and Historical Genres

• Interpretive Approaches

– Genre theory, Perception, Advertising

– Lanham’s Economics of Attention

– How genres work

• New Technologies

– Small screens, Web pages, new media

Course approach

• In-class exercises and interactions

• Group discussions and reports from the front (not always satisfactory)

• Projects: design a stage set for a one-act absurdist drama, design a fashion blog for Rice University, Compare corporate web sites, and REPORT

Final Projects & Presentations

• The Scarlet Letter’s Changing Covers

• Anime “eyecatches” as new visual genre

• Dressing for Success: Powerful Women Washington D.C. Politicians & Wanna Bes

• Three Web Worlds of Disney: Stylistic Web Coherence and Audience Adaptation

• Isaiah and Old Spice Audience Engagement

Newly Occupied Territories

• Linking activity theory and genre theory

• Involving students in thinking with our theories

• Asserting our claims on knowledge

• Using collaborative pedagogy and engaging technologies

• Showing rhetoric as an ethical tool

Where Are Your Territories?

• What fields and interests keep you reading on weekends?

• What did you major in as an undergrad?

• What matters most to you?

• What to do want to know much more about?

Pack Your Rhetoric Tools and “Light Out”!

Two Different Systems

• Free-range Objects

– Functional use, private or public ownership

– Genres in cycle of production and consumption

– Personal essay

– Feature articles

• Caged Objects

– Managed collections

– Letters, donation agreements, or acquisitions

– Genres in system of museum collections, library, exhibition, loans, and de-accession or preservation